# So, I am looking to buy large quatities of refiened Uranium... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2001, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781 "2001-08-17T18:47:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/21 "2001-08-18T09:40:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cleophus \* > \*\*What the hell do you want 20 pounds of uranium for? > Required scare: > > If you do go through with this, I hope you take proper storage into consideration. It’s not like you can put it in a cardboard box. > > Radiation, especially gamma rays, is _extremely_ dangerous. In fact, the radiation will make other things radioactive. Say you keep it in your basement, in the aforementioned box. Any metal will be affected significantly. The walls will likely be affected. The radiation will easily penetrate the ceiling into the rest of the house. Also, 20 pounds of uranium will emit a hell of a lot of gamma rays, with a half-life of around 4000 years. It’s going to stay radioactive for a very long time. Plus, it’s toxic all by itself, not even taking into effect the radiation. Are you sure you want this hazard in the same location you live in? \*\* _God of Sarcasm zaps Cleophus with lightning bolt_ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/22 "2001-08-18T17:24:06Z")
Waht was the name of the kid whp scavanged radioactive material from smoke detectors, watches, etc…they came to his house in special suits to remove it. ANyone know a cite? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/23 "2001-08-18T17:35:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > \*\*Waht was the name of the kid whp scavanged radioactive material from smoke detectors, watches, etc…they came to his house in special suits to remove it. ANyone know a cite? \*\* Try this thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=74933](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=74933) ---
**Author:** ![MrDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@MrDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDeath)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/24 "2001-08-18T20:15:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kamandi \* > **Plutonium does not occur naturally on Earth.** [Does too.](http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/9601/msg00019.html) Just not very much of it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/25 "2001-08-18T21:14:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Muad’Dib \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Cleophus \* > > \*\*What the hell do you want 20 pounds of uranium for? > > \*\* > > \*\* Oh, I just carry it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/26 "2001-08-19T02:01:30Z")
So check out these websites and see if your backyard is listed under “Uranium ore deposits–United States”. [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/branner/information/ore.html](http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/branner/information/ore.html) [http://minerals.usgs.gov/product.html](http://minerals.usgs.gov/product.html) Me, I have a life. 😃 And here I go, getting on with it… ---
**Author:** ![Oicu812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f475e1/32.png) [@Oicu812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oicu812)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/27 "2001-08-19T02:12:19Z")
There is a brand of pottery called Bybee. Up until the forties, there was a line of glazes used that was a caramel color, and was HEAVY in naturally occuring uranium, dug out of a hill in central Kentucky. About a year before the start of the war, the U.S. Government came and mined all there was. These pieces set off a Geiger counter like mad, and my father owns quite a few (stored on a HIGH shelf). O ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/28 "2001-08-19T03:58:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guy Propski \* > \*\*Sale of radioactive materials, like other explosives, is heavily regulated. You have to have a license to buy, sell, and transport it. All sales and their quantities are reported to the government. There are only a few authorized purveyors of radioactives, so it’s not like you go down to the Home Depot and pick up some. \*\* … actually, don’t smoke detectors have a small amount of Uranium 235? If so, I guess you _can_ go down to the Home Depot and pick some up. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Raven\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@The\_Raven\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Raven_1)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/29 "2001-08-19T04:13:20Z")
**Muad’Dib** Whassamatta, family atomics in hock? -Rav -[sub]Baron Harkonnen was my role model…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/30 "2001-08-19T09:36:06Z")
For current bulk prices, try here: [http://www.uxc.com/top\_review.html](http://www.uxc.com/top_review.html) You will need a licence for transport, handling and storage of radioactive material. Not sure how hard they are to get hold of - universities, labs, hospitals, non-destructive testing plants and smoke-detector factories have them. With a bit of determination, I’m sure you can get hold of 20lbs quite legally. Hell, they used to make watches and bookends out of the stuff. What you’re going to do with it is another matter. It’d be quite useful for propping doors open, I suppose. If you found a nice rich vein of uranium ore in your backyard, by all means dig it up and put it in your basement. If you have the money, acquire the permits and licences and set up a processing plant to produce yellowcake uranium. The EPA, DOT and other regulatory bodies are going to be far more interested than the FBI. To get up to any serious mischief with your uranium, you’re going to need an enormous separation plant to extract the fissile isotopes, and you need a lot more than 20lbs of weapons-grade uranium to make a decent bomb. Or you could go the other way and set up a reactor to make plutonium - a carefully designed reactor can run on non-enriched uranium. Extracting the plutonium from your radioactive-as-hell fission waste is a bit of a problem, and then you are limited to the technologically-challenging implosion-triggered bomb. Good luck! Twenty pounds of _thallium_, now, that’s something I hope you don’t get your hands on… ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/31 "2001-08-19T09:39:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt \* > \*\* > > Twenty pounds of _thallium_, now, that’s something I hope you don’t get your hands on… \*\* Why? ---
**Author:** ![Darqangelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Darqangelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darqangelle)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/32 "2001-08-19T09:42:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cleophus \* > **What the hell do you want 20 pounds of uranium for?** Religious purposes… 😃 _crickets_ …what? …nobody saw “Bowfinger”? ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/33 "2001-08-19T10:14:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bear\_Nenno \* > \*\*… actually, don’t smoke detectors have a small amount of Uranium 235? \*\* Last time I checked, they used Polonium. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/34 "2001-08-19T11:54:06Z")
[B}Muad’Dib\*\*: “Why?” It’s quite poisonous, is all. Maybe I should have said “twenty pounds of arsenic.” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/35 "2001-08-19T12:15:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cleophus \* > **What the hell do you want 20 pounds of uranium for?** “Ah just like to feel the power between my legs.” -Billy “Sackless” Bob Derleth, Baron of Fake References 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/36 "2001-08-19T14:10:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cleophus \* > \*\*What the hell do you want 20 pounds of uranium for? > Required scare: > > If you do go through with this, I hope you take proper storage into consideration. It’s not like you can put it in a cardboard box. > > Radiation, especially gamma rays, is _extremely_ dangerous. In fact, the radiation will make other things radioactive. Say you keep it in your basement, in the aforementioned box. Any metal will be affected significantly. The walls will likely be affected. The radiation will easily penetrate the ceiling into the rest of the house. Also, 20 pounds of uranium will emit a hell of a lot of gamma rays, with a half-life of around 4000 years. It’s going to stay radioactive for a very long time. Plus, it’s toxic all by itself, not even taking into effect the radiation. Are you sure you want this hazard in the same location you live in? \*\* Ummm. This is largely wrong. Gamma radiation (very short-wave electromagnetic radiation) will _not_ induce radioactivity (activate materials). Neutrons _will_ activate materials, but a lump of unenriched uranium will emit neutrons only from the occasional spontaneours fission of a [sup]235[/sup]U nucleus. Common uranium isotopes are otherwise alpha-emitters; that cardboard box will indeed block them. [sup]238[/sup]U has a half-life of about 4.4x10[sup]_9_[/sup] years. [sup]235[/sup]U has a half-life of 7x10[sup]8[/sup] years. Although sleeping on a slab is not a good idea, refined uranium is often used as a radiation shiield due to its density. Uranium _is_ a chemical poison, as is any heavy metal. ISTR that the biological half-life is about 20-50 years, depending on what tissues it’s deposited in. [MSDS](http://hazard.com/msds2/gn.cgi?query=uranium&whole=whole&start=0) state that the principal radiation hazard is from inhaled particles in the lungs, whilst the principal chemical hazard is to the kidneys from soluble uranium compounds. A five-year exposure to uranium at 5 mg/m[sup]3[/sup] did not result in perceptible kidney damage; however, a concentration of not more than 2 mg/m[sup]3[/sup] is recommended. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/37 "2001-08-19T14:23:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chas.E \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Bear\_Nenno \* > > \*\*… actually, don’t smoke detectors have a small amount of Uranium 235? \*\* > > Last time I checked, they used Polonium. \*\* You might have to check again next time. Because every single source I can find for home smoke detectors uses Americium 241. It is also an interesting nonsequiter to note that in my searches I came across a couple sites that listed tobacco leaves as a source of Polonium. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![MrDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@MrDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDeath)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/38 "2001-08-19T18:08:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chas.E \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Bear\_Nenno \* > > \*\*… actually, don’t smoke detectors have a small amount of Uranium 235? \*\* > > Last time I checked, they used Polonium. \*\* Just checked my smoke detector. Would you believe, Americium? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![MrDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@MrDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDeath)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/39 "2001-08-19T18:09:25Z")
Woops, I guess you would. Teach me not to read to the end of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![MrDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@MrDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDeath)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781/40 "2001-08-19T18:16:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt \* > **If you found a nice rich vein of uranium ore in your backyard, by all means dig it up and put it in your basement.** After acquiring the mineral rights from your state, and paying them royalties on every pound you mine. On the plus side, in some jurisdictions (I know this is true in British Columbia), if you’re building a mine, you can put roads, buildings, etc. on other peoples’ property _without their permission_! MrDeath, posting from a province with 30% of the world’s known uranium reserves (not B.C.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-am-looking-to-buy-large-quatities-of-refiened-uranium/76781.md?page=3)